NEVER GIVE UP

By Coach Josie

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

Growing up I was the tallest kid in my class. I had no hand-eye coordination and was always picked last for any game at recess. If the ball was coming towards me I would 9 times out of 10 get pelted in the head instead of actually catching it. I ran somewhere around a 13-minute mile (it was more like a speed-walk) and I hated anything athletic.

Fast forward to my first day of CrossFit. The workout was “Cindy” and it was the worst 20 minutes of my life. My body was in so much pain the next day but I had never felt so good and I signed up that day for a year’s membership.

Why am I telling you this?

Because after I finished that first CrossFit workout, I felt accomplished. For the first time in 22 years, I looked an athletic challenge in the face and had taken it head on.

I know, I know, that sounds a bit pathetic. But growing up, no one cheered me on or told me that I could do better. I was made to believe there was nothing I could do about my lack of athletic prowess, when in reality all it would have taken was time, patience, and practice to improve my sub-par skillset.

Looking back on it, this was a travesty. I spent 22 years of my life running away from challenges instead of facing them. I never developed important traits like perseverance, grit, determination, and mental toughness.

I’ve been CrossFitting for three years now. Every day I walk into the gym, it’s another day to prove my younger self wrong. It’s another day to push myself outside my comfort zone. And it’s another day to teach myself that limitations are almost always self-imposed.

By day, I’m a second grade teacher. My students are only seven years old, which means they get frustrated. A lot.

Sometimes, when they struggle to find the correct answer or can’t understand the work, they give up. And this doesn’t fly in my classroom.

One of my most important rules is that my students are never allowed to give up. I’ll sit next to them and work them through what they’re struggling with until they get it.

But I’ll never let them quit.

It’s important to me that – at this young age – they learn how to persevere. It’s important to me that they learn how to give consistent effort all the time. That just because something is hard the first time doesn’t mean they won’t eventually get it.

It takes years of practice to get good at this. But I want them to start now so that they aren’t 22 years old, still running away from the difficult things in life.

And I want you to remember this: mental toughness doesn’t come over night- it’s built throughout all the little wins- whether that’s getting your first pull up, or accomplishing double unders.

Our limitations, our doubts, and our fears or all often self-imposed. You might not get it the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth time, but that doesn’t mean you won’t eventually get it.

So please, keep doing the best you can – not just in Crossfit but in all areas of life. Day in and day out, you build success by giving your all because our most difficult challenges always seem impossible…until they’re not.

Coach Josie

WOD 1215

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL PARKHURST

Question of the day - If you could magically gain one skill without working for it, what would it be?